Tuesday, January 20, 2015

A hospital employee, who was also a high-profile anti-abortion activist, breached the privacy of hundreds of patients by inappropriately accessing their records and abortion files.

Between 2011 and 2012 this information clerk, who has since been fired, snooped on nearly 300 patients. Although the hospital says this person's "work computer and email were searched and did not reveal any evidence of patient personal health information having been disclosed" in this age of smart phone cameras every screen can easily be captured and later printed and shared.

"Nobody wants to have unauthorized people accessing your records, but with abortion services there is another layer of need for confidentiality." - Celia Posyniak, Executive Director Kensington Clinic

It is unclear why the breaches of a know anti-abortion activist were allowed to go on for a year. Healthcare organizations seeking proactive detection of patient data privacy breaches can utilize low-cost on-demand SaaS analytics services.